Tagged: Anniversary

Well 2011 was an interesting year…and not just for me! I mean poor Kourtney, no wait Kim, or was it Khloe—the Kardashian that was only married 72 hours….bless her heart. And though late in the year, who can forget Governor Perry’s complete and utter nose dive on live national television?!! If you haven’t seen this one, then seriously you need to go to hulu.com, search SNL, then click on the Emma Stone episode…hilarity cannot begin to describe what will ensue. PS youtube.com DOES NOT have the original sketch.

Looking out at the lake from the back patio

Okay but seriously, it was the year of “Pintrest”—still can’t figure that one out—epic Twitter hash marks, and the revolving door of Facebook versions. Who can look back on 2011 and not, if nothing else throw their hands in the air and thank the higher being, you choose to believe in, that it’s all over. Let us all “come in and know (2012) better man!” If you watched The Muppet Christmas Carol, congratulations you just got that one!

For us 2011 was truly a whirlwind of activity. We moved to two different cities and states, I have had 4 different jobs, and Colin even got a promotion! We made some of the most wonderful friends I could ever hope to find, people that I feel I could call at any moment and any of them would do whatever they could to help me, people I feel that will influence me and be a part of our lives for a very long time. I miss these people terribly.

Colin at the back door

We conquered a top market city and I learned about a skill that I had no idea I even had! We moved to a third tier market and after taking a job that was a HUGE learning opportunity and then leaving that job once I had finished learning, I now have an awesome job. I have also realized some much hidden dreams of mine and possibly even discovered a glimmer of what I want to do when I grow up!

All in all, I think 2011 was a year that had some mistakes, Colin and I both look back and wish we wouldn’t have acted quite so quickly in some areas, but love the decisions we made in other areas. We are happy that we are where we are and looking forward to the year ahead…

View from the bedroom

Now for the juicy stuff! For those of you who know us, know that New Years is our Anniversary! We have been married 2 years and 3 days at the time of posting! For New Year’s we went up to my Aunt and Uncle’s lake house. It was so peaceful, and pretty. The dogs loved it and we truly enjoyed the relaxing get away. All of these pictures are from the lake house! YAY on 2 years! I mean hey we’re just glad we made it past that really difficult first 72 hours…I remember that time in our marriage—there were moments, brief like 3 minutes max, where I just didn’t know…how can you ONLY make it 72 hours!!!???

Getting ready to ride the 4-wheelers and bike

So tell me—what are your resolutions??? I’m so excited about mine! We all know, and if you didn’t then now your do, how amazingly horrible I am at keeping house. Well I decided that I wanted to change that! Don’t laugh, well ok laugh ‘cause I do every time I think about it—I downloaded these “Task Lists” from Martha Stewart! Crazy right?! So I have my daily tasks, weekly tasks, monthly tasks, seasonal tasks and even a Spring Cleaning check list! I’ve been really good at my day-to-day tasks, and just did the weekly one on Monday. It took me freaking 2 hours to clean my condo and I STILL forgot some stuff.

She got tired and had to be driven back home

OH and to be certain I don’t lose them, cause I have a habit of doing that too!, I pinned them up to my bulletin board! I’ll let you know how it all goes. Also I was going to tell you guys all about Colin’s resolution, but he asked me not to. So bummer, sorry for the tease on FB! But I want to hear what you all are going to try and accomplish this upcoming year?

I’m leaving you guys with this picture of Borla on the farm at Christmas time…we should all be this happy with a deer leg!

Those of you that have known us for at least year know that we got married on New Years, last year. As of this blog post we have been married for 1 year and 1 day! It has been an amazing 1st year and I am going to recap all that we have been through in our first year of marriage! I love you Colin and I feel so blessed to have you as my husband and I had a great first year and can’t wait to see what year 2 brings us!

A year in review…..

January 1 we got married and then went out to eat at our favorite place in Dallas–The Metro Diner! We had all our bestest friends with us and felt so blessed and surrounded by love. Mrs. Pam drove us to the airport to be on a 9am flight to New Orleans for our honeymoon. We spent 4 glorious days at Ashton’s Bed and Breakfast. The food was great and it was so relaxing to just be and stroll through New Orleans. We ate well and life was amazing.

The Green Door

I started my final full semester of school taking 21 hours and needing to maintain my A average–which I did by the way! About mid January I was back in Baylor Hospital. After we changed doctors due to a bogus diagnosis, more blood tests were run, an MRI was ordered and it was decided that I had had a mini stroke. I was also diagnosed with Lupus and a blood disorder requiring me to be a life long Coumadin patient. For more information regarding what exactly Lupus is and what Coumadin is used for check out the websites below respectively:http://www.lupus.org/newsite/index.htmlhttp://www.coumadin.com/for_consumers.aspx

At O'Learys

Not going to allow the diagnosis to dictate how we were going to spend our life, we went forward. We moved into a larger yet less expensive apartment in February. We loved our place, it was so nice and spacious. I got a job at Williams Financial Group after I graduated in May and I loved my job. I loved the people I worked with and life was going GREAT! Then as it often happens in life, we thought we could settle in, but the Universe had different plans. Colin was ready for a change in scenery and wanted to explore other career opportunities.

O'Leary's

We started to look at different cities and the cost of living in each. We narrowed it down to Chicago, Portland (which was our first choice) and Denver. Colin started feeling out the job market in Portland and then Chicago. In August we decided Colin should just leave his job and go live in X city for two weeks, get a job and then I would move up. So we looked at what it would cost for Colin to live in Portland vs Chicago for two weeks, and then what it would cost to get a Uhaul to Portland vs Chicago. Well, as we all know, Chicago won the cost factor contest.

Colin started interviewing in the financial sector, I turned in my two weeks notice at the beginning of September. By September 12th Colin, Kalie and I were officially living in Chi-town. I was at a loss as to what career path to pursue. Colin encouraged me to go in the direction of sales. I had 0 sales experience but Colin wasn’t going to let that stop me! So I had some help from one Eric Lemieux and Vince with Selling Point in Boston and I got a job working at locallife.com! I now sell online marketing and custom websites. I rock at my job and am so far hitting my sales goals.

The Green Door

We had a great New Year/Anniversary celebration. We went to eat at Feast in the Gold Coast and ate one of the best 4 course Prix Fixe meals I think I have ever had! It was A-MA-ZING! We then went to O’Leary’s Public House on Wells and Ohio. Rung in the new year with Steve and Pat. Thank you Steve so much for the bottle of Champagne! We met a cool cat, Justice, who was in the city for a visit. He is a chef and opening a new restaurant in Joliet, IL. He stayed with us as we went to The Green Door Tavern on Orleans just south of Superior. The Green Door was so much fun! Then last but certainly not least we went out to Declan’s. Declan’s was bumping and Jeff one of the main guys there had a great turn out! Colin and I so enjoyed our New Year meal at Feast and our mini Pub Crawl from O’Leary’s to Green Door and ending the night at Declan’s. My new favorite bars in Chicago!

Spending the first day of 2011 and our 2nd year of Marriage at Meli for breakfast!

We ended the year on a splash, the same we started it! Here is to a beautiful 2011! I can’t wait to see what the new yearbrings!